The Cheshire Jets are serious about getting Ron Artest — soon to be Metta World Peace — on their team. They’ve got the meetings set and the jerseys made.

What they don’t have is money. Nobody in Europe pays NBA-level money but the Jets don’t have the money that a team in Turkey or China or Spain or even Greece could offer. Well, maybe Greece these days, but you get the idea.

“You’ll appreciate that we haven’t got the means to entice someone of Ron’s standing on financial grounds,” Hawkins said. “Our commitment is to help raise Ron’s profile in the UK in order to help him develop his music and movie career over here while playing basketball.”

One possibility, according to a source with knowledge of the Jets’ plans, is trying to find Artest a role on a British soap opera.

As tends to be the pattern, Artest is jumping into whatever interests him with the energy of a 14-year-old boy while his agent and publicist spend time playing the adult. In this case, they say he is going to England next week just to take some meetings and get a sense of the place, not make a decision. Meanwhile Artest is tweeting “ Jets are the best!!!”

It could really happen. It may not. But the Jets are putting together a creative package, that much is clear.